FDA Unveils New Nutrition Facts Label

Today, the FDA released the highly anticipated and much talked about new nutrition facts label.

According to an article on the FDA’s blog, “the changes [to the nutrition label] are based on updated science that reinforces the link between diet and chronic conditions such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes.” The FDA hopes that design changes to the label will make it easier for consumers “to see essential information at a glance; including calories and information about serving sizes and servings per container”.

Most of the buzz about changes to the nutrition label has surrounded new requirements about declaring added sugars; however, there are also other important additions. Other changes to the label include new or updated Daily Values (DVs) – the reference amounts of nutrients to consume or not to exceed and the basis of the percent Daily Value (% DV).There are also new requirements on what nutrients must be declared, including: Vitamin D and potassium; both nutrients of which the FDA believes consumers aren’t getting enough.

You can read more about the changes on the FDA’s blog or via the FDA press release announcing the label changes.